Even before the ceremony, I knew I couldn't wait to tell the whole world about Rabbi Mark! I'll give you the highlights upfront: - He's funny, cares SO much, and is deeply committed to ensuring that you and your future spouse explore YOUR Judaism and what your life looks like together. - He is just as invested as you are about making sure that your ceremony incorporates elements that are unique and meaningful to you and your partner. - He plays the guitar and sings! - Almost 3 weeks after the wedding I'm still hearing from our attendees who want to tell me how awesome the Rabbi who officiated our wedding was, how funny he was, how much they feel like they were part of the ceremony, how special it felt to THEM, and just how much they loved him. I heard this THROUGHOUT the evening on wedding day!! Now, more in-depth: We came to Rabbi Mark following a recommendation from Rabbi Sarah Tasman, the DC Director of InterfaithFamily. During our initial Skype session to explore whether we could even work together or not, Rabbi Mark explained to us that he's unapologetic in his commitment to an intercultural experience both for the wedding ceremony and beyond where Judaism is a central element. He actively worked with us in regular meetings for about 6 months to explore what that would look like practically on the day of the wedding, and in our lives beyond as a married couple. We covered everything from things like holidays and daily life to finances and disagreements, to our vision for the world and our community and our place in it. Rabbi Mark was always available via email and happy to jump on the phone if necessary. He had suggestions about how to handle issues that came up and any questions we had along the way. He kept an open mind for the big and the small questions. He tried to explore all the possibilities so that any decisions we came to were truly made with open hearts and eyes. He also was understanding and knew when to tell us that we didn't have to make a decision right away but he needed us to think about something. The day of the ceremony, the small intimate portion where the Ketubah was signed was special in so many ways. Our family members felt included and loved, our friends were overjoyed to participate. The larger ceremony under the chupah, despite the fact that we had 250 people in attendance, felt intimate and special and so very vibrant -- Rabbi Mark taught ALL attendees a melody they sang/hummed, which served as the music that my partner and I walked in to. It was emotional and mood-setting in the best possible way. The ceremony proceeded without a hitch, and he followed a superb path that kept us and all our guests laughing, awwww-ing, and crying, and clapping the whole time. Truthfully, our guests couldn't stop complimenting how amazing he was the entire evening! The positive vibes and loving energy we felt persisted from the moment we walked in to the moment we left the establishment. Rabbi Mark is a rockstar officiant and guide, deserving of all the praise. read more

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Rabbi Mark is AMAZING!! Everything you want, everything you are looking for, everything you didn't know you needed, and So Much More. Rabbi Mark went above and beyond to get to know us and ensured our special day was perfect. We laughed and cried (all in joy) ... Everyone loved it!! Amazing!~ read more

Rabbi Mark Novak - Rabbi Mark - Officiants Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

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Rabbi Mark provided warmth and kindness, humor, a depth of Jewish and spiritual knowledge, and a beautiful voice to create a magical wedding ceremony for me and my wife. We were introduced to Rabbi Mark through our wonderful wedding planner (Ellen Dubin, Personally Yours) and immediately knew he was the right fit of traditional jewish flavor, modern and thoughtful ethics and just a deep sense of personal caring. We started with a few phone calls, emails back and forth and Skype calls because we live across the country in San Francisco. Rabbi Mark helped us with all sorts of Jewish questions, from personalizing our Ketubah, to recording the blessings so our family could learn them, to debating different reasons behind breaking the glass. He never tired of our many questions. We then met him in person just once at his house to finalize the details and answer a few more questions about our relationship a few days before the wedding. That meeting was amazing... once we were done with all the logistics, he brought us down to the basement and had us close our eyes as he guided us through a visualization and gratitude exercise about each other and our upcoming marriage. I know it sounds hokey but for both my wife and i, that was the moment all the pre-wedding commotion settled away and our focus returned to our love for each other as the center and reason for everything we were about to do. When we walked out of his house, we already felt that he had sprinkled a little fairy dust on us and we were giddy to begin our wedding weekend. As for the wedding itself, we couldn't believe how wonderfully everything came together. Rabbi Mark did a great job setting a warm and loving and personal tone to the event. He even totally surprised us by incorporating and singing one of our favorite songs into his speech!! (James Taylor, Shed a little light) That made the short list of favorite moments and memories from the whole weekend for both of us. We feel really lucky to have been able to work with him and to have him be an integral part of our ceremony. And we still keep in touch with him every few months via skype! read more

Rabbi Mark Novak - Rabbi Mark! - Officiants Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

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My wife Meredith and I had the pleasure of working with Rabbi Novak for our wedding. He is a funny, welcoming, and extremely open to learning and working with all different sets of couples. I am not as religious as my wife, nor did we practice the same cultural aspects of Judaism, and Rabbi Novak was amazing at incorporated both our backgrounds into the service. With Rabbi Novak, you get the perfect combination of traditional and personal in your wedding service. read more

First of all, THANK you for making our wedding one we will never forget! You made it exactly the way we wanted it: relaxed, intimate and above all special. You ensured that everything we wanted to say was said and you made our service completely unique and based on both of our personalities. Your advice was also highly appreciated. Brian and I were so happy with the service and we had so many compliments from our guests, even the ones who'd never been to a Jew-sh wedding before. Keep doing what you're doing and you will continue to make more days special for so many more couples. read more

Rabbi Mark is a long-time family friend, so choosing him to officiate our wedding was an easy decision - but one we would have made regardless of preexisting connections. We met with him a number of times at his home in the 6 (or so) months prior to our wedding, during which time he provided invaluable guidance and a number of exercises that helped us reflect on our shared goals for our marriage. Rarely have my now-husband and I had the opportunity to reflect on our spirituality, religion, Jewish identity, and how we portray these aspects of ourselves publicly to our community of family and friends, before or since this process. It meant a great deal to us to have a Rabbi with whom we connected so easily. Most importantly, though, Rabbi Mark was committed to helping us craft a ceremony that truly reflected us, our families (my husband was raised inter-faith), and our values, rather than an one-size-fits-all approach. So many of our guests remarked on how meaningful - and fun! - our ceremony was. Hire Rabbi Mark! read more

We found Rabbi Mark on a website called Unorthodox Jews since I'm Jewish and my husband is not. We "interviewed" him over the phone (since we lived on the West coast at the time), and he sounded like he was a great fit for us, not only through his beliefs but also his sense of humor. Over the months that we "met" with Rabbi Mark it was all over video chat since we lived on opposite coasts. We only met in person the week before the wedding. Rabbi Mark offered a lot of good advice from having a Jewish household, to raising Jewish children, to getting us to open up about many topics that will come up in a marriage. But, the best part of working with Rabbi Mark was definitely the ceremony itself. My husband and I were both nervous about having a super emotional ceremony because both of our families can be cry-ers, but Rabbi Mark provided comic relief during the ceremony and people were laughing along with us the majority of the time. We received so many compliments from our Jewish relatives and non-Jewish friends about how unique and entertaining the ceremony was. Rabbi Mark is quirky and fun and we would definitely recommend him to other Jewish and interfaith couples. read more

We have known Mark for many years and we always knew he would be the one to officiate at our wedding. The process has been thoughtful, enlivening, spiritually grounded and grounding and completely personalized. On top of all of that, Mark is a gifted musician, a commanding and compassionate presence and a sweet, good-humored soul. We were even invited to join his growing community and we hope to get more involved over time. It's clear to us, connect with Mark and you will connect more deeply with yourself and with a spiritual community!!! Thank you Mark!!! read more